Are clinical trial data shared sufficiently today? No

ByBen Goldacre

ARTICLE ABSTRACT

When discussing transparency it is important to be clear on what is being requested, as obfuscation is sometimes used to avoid discussing simple fixes. At stake are four levels of information about trials: (1) knowledge that a trial has been conducted, from a clinical trials register; (2) a brief summary of a trial’s results, in an academic journal article or regulatory summary; (3) longer details about the trial’s methods and results, from a clinical study report where available; (4) individual patient data. The AllTrials campaign calls only for the first three to be published.